Well, friends after a long divided debate, a controversial approval, and after several months of waiting for it to take effect, the big day has come. As of this morning, Calgary has reduced the speed limit in some residential areas from 50 km to 40 km/hr in the hopes of creating a safer city with fewer collisions and lower societal costs. If this comes as a surprise to you, here’s everything that you need to know about how the project came to be.
This 10 km speed reduction was proposed in September of last year after city council had heard from several concerned residents.
According to the city’s website (prior to today), there had been an average of 9,100 collisions per year on streets inside YYC neighbourhoods, 550 of which had been recorded as resulting in injury or death.
Though changing these speed limits will cost $2.3 million, the city believes that this will be much better for the Calgarians in the long run.
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Now, it is important to note that not all residential areas will be affected! Reductions were looked at on a case-by-case basis, with officials taking everything from road length and design to the neighbourhoods average speed of traffic into consideration. Other factors included whether or not there was a bus route on the road and what, if any, traffic calming measures were already in place.
Luckily, to make things a little bit easier on those driving through their respected areas, the city has actually created an interactive map and search system, where Calgarians can simply type their address into a search engine to see if they will be affected.
Please be aware that because this change is to the default unposted speed limit, the city will not be placing new signs on most residential roads.
Affected collector roads, however (roads that have residences, schools, businesses, green spaces, a centerline, and are often bus and snow routes). will have had a new sign installed – so keep an eye out for those!
For more information, to see the full speed limit map of Calgary or to use the search engine please visit the city’s official website here – and please, drive safely, be patient, and don’t worry about your commute time! According to the city – this will only add two extra minutes to your trip to and from work, which (if you’re leaving on time) definitely shouldn’t be a big deal.
